Breath test can monitor metabolism at home - study

First applied research to evaluate device finds it may detect changes linked to diet

2023-04-26

(Press-News.org) New research has found that it is possible to capture the impact of a meal on metabolism outside of a lab environment.

Published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and led by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England, the study evaluated Lumen, which the manufacturers claim is the first device to allow people to monitor metabolic fuel use at home.

The research – the first applied study to investigate the practical use of this handheld breath device – was split into two sections. The first part was to confirm its effectiveness under controlled lab conditions, with the Lumen compared to the Douglas bag test, a gold standard measure of respiratory analysis.

This involved 12 healthy volunteers consuming a high carbohydrate meal under fasted conditions. Respiratory measures were taken at rest and then 30 and 60 minutes following the meal using both the Lumen device and the Douglas bag air analysis test.

The Lumen captures the percentage of carbon dioxide (CO2) as the user breathes out, and it demonstrated a significant increase in %CO2 within 30 minutes of the high carbohydrate meal.

An increase in expired carbon dioxide is associated with a greater degree of carbohydrates being used for energy, as typically quantified by the RER (respiratory exchange ratio) value under lab conditions. As the increase in %CO2 measured by the Lumen was associated with an increase in RER, the result indicates that the device could detect an acute change in carbohydrate use.

The second part of the study investigated whether the device could detect metabolic changes during a normal diet and then in response to a high or low carbohydrate diet over a one-week period. The participants, 27 healthy active adults, were requested to take measures at home using the Lumen device at set points during each day of their diet under normal living conditions, to represent how the device may typically be used.

The results showed that the Lumen device can detect changes in the participants’ %CO2 over the week in response to acute dietary modifications but was not sensitive on a day-to-day basis, indicating it might be more suited to longer term tracking.

As the device does not measure oxygen consumption, it can only provide indirect measures of metabolic fluctuations, but the researchers believe it could support dietary changes, particularly relating to carbohydrate intake.

Lead author Dr Justin Roberts, Associate Professor in Nutritional Physiology for Health & Exercise at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: “Ours is the first study to investigate the practical use of this breath device. What makes this technology interesting is that up to now, the only way to assess metabolic function has been under laboratory conditions using advanced and expensive respiratory analysers.

“When people leave the lab there are limited means to accurately assess metabolic changes at home, such as fuel use and whether the person is likely burning more fat or carbohydrates, either in response to a diet or exercise.

“Therefore, the findings from our study demonstrate that a home-use portable device like Lumen could be a useful way of tracking weekly changes in dietary interventions when dietary carbohydrate is the main variable being changed. It should be noted that our study only tracked for a short period, therefore longer-term studies are needed to assess whether the device can detect metabolic adaptations over time.

“However, the Lumen device could be a useful tool to support research and dietary interventions. It may offer a practical solution to tracking dietary changes, particularly in relation to regular exercise, but users should be mindful of the complexity of metabolic adaptations and interpretation of data on a day-to-day basis.”

The researchers at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) did not receive funding for the study, other than the loan of equipment, and had full control over the research and publication.

The full open access study is available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2023.2185537

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Benchmarking deep-learning methods for more accurate plant-phenotyping

2023-04-26

In crop-breeding, plant phenotyping is the detailed study of a plant’s characteristic ‘visible’ or phenotypic features. It includes counting the number of plants generated by a crossing experiment and grading the features displayed by the offspring or progeny. The progeny with the desirable traits is then crossed to produce the next generation of crops, and the process is repeated to enhance the crop variety. Conventional methods for plant phenotyping typically lack scalability, accuracy, and are immensely labor-intensive. This imposes a certain bottleneck on crop-breeding programs. However, with technological ...

UH-led research team seeks to improve language learning in bilingual children

2023-04-26

A University of Houston professor and her research team are seeking to improve the lives and education of bilingual children across the country through their research on developmental language disorder. Anny Castilla-Earls, professor of communication sciences and disorders, was awarded $3.27 million for five years by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to investigate the relationship between a child’s proficiency in English or Spanish and the language in which they receive treatment for developmental language disorder. Developmental language disorder, or ...

Astronomers image for the first time a black hole expelling a powerful jet

2023-04-26

An international team of scientists led by Dr. LU Rusen from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has used new millimeter-wavelength observations to produce an image that shows, for the first time, both the ring-like accretion structure around a black hole, where matter falls into the black hole, and the black hole's associated powerful relativistic jet. The source of the images was the central black hole of the prominent radio galaxy Messier 87. The study was published in Nature on April 26. The image underlines for the first time the connection between the accretion flow near the central supermassive black hole and the origin ...

LincRNA paints a target on diseased tissues

2023-04-26

Our genetic code includes over 15,000 specific sections that can be made into molecules called lincRNAs. Some of these sections can occur in coiled-up sections of our genome called TADs. LincRNAs derived from TADs appear to act as markers indicating the specific kind of tissue they are within. When something is wrong in these tissues, the markers could help with targeted medical interventions. The team that discovered this novel feature has outlined a way to apply this idea to different diseases and demonstrated it with a heart disease known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Diseases can affect very specific ...

Prehistoric poo reveals ‘waves’ of extinction in Colombia

2023-04-26

Fungal spores found in dung have revealed that large animals went extinct in two “waves” in the Colombian Andes. Spores of coprophilous fungi pass through the guts of megafauna (animals over 45kg) as part of their life cycle, so the presence of the spores in sediment samples shows large animals lived in a certain place and time. The study, by the University of Exeter, found that large animals became locally extinct at Pantano de Monquentiva about 23,000 years ago, and again about 11,000 years ago – with major impacts on ecosystems. The study used ...

Social vulnerability has direct link to suicide risk, study shows

2023-04-26

More than 45,000 Americans died by suicide in 2020, a 30% increase over 2000, making it the 12th leading cause of death in the U.S. Studies have shown that the social and environmental factors where people live, like exposure to violence and crime, access to quality health care, food insecurity, job opportunities, and air pollution, are connected to suicide rates. Now, a new research study from the University of Chicago provides more statistical evidence that social determinants of health are tightly linked to suicide risk. The study, published ...

Gun deaths more likely in small towns than major cities

2023-04-26

Contrary to popular belief, firearm deaths in the U.S. are statistically more likely in small towns, not major cities, according to new research. Across the country, gun suicides are more common than gun homicides, and gun suicides are largely responsible for an increase in gun deaths over the past few decades, the study also finds. The analysis of two decades of U.S. mortality data was conducted by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of California, Davis, and appears in the journal JAMA Surgery. “Our study has found that the divide in total intentional ...

Safety, immunogenicity, efficacy of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents

2023-04-26

About The Study: The findings of this randomized clinical trial including 2,200 adolescents indicate that the NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax, Inc.) COVID-19 vaccine is safe, immunogenic, and efficacious in preventing COVID-19, including the predominant Delta variant, in adolescents. Authors: German Anez, M.D., of Novavax, Inc., in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.9135) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

Exposure to neighborhood racialized economic segregation and reinjury and violence perpetration among survivors of violent injuries

2023-04-26

About The Study: This study found that living in a more economically deprived and socially marginalized area was associated with increased risk of using violence against others. The finding suggests that interventions may need to include investments in neighborhoods with the highest levels of violence to help reduce downstream transmission of violence. Authors: Elizabeth C. Pino, Ph.D., of the Boston University School of Medicine, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.8404) Editor’s ...

How the Amazon rainforest is likely to cope with the effect of future drought

2023-04-26

Note to journaliststs. There are two linked press releases below: the first describes the scientific findings. The second describes the challenges of working in the Amazon forest. How the Amazon rainforest is likely to cope with the effect of future drought New study identifies regions in the rainforest most at risk from drier conditions Drought will reduce the rainforest’s ability to remove carbon from the environment A major collaboration involving 80 scientists from Europe and South America has identified the regions of the Amazon rainforest where trees are most likely to face the greatest risk from drier ...

Breath test can monitor metabolism at home - study

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: